FORERUNNERS

French Post Offices

The French operated a number of post offices in the Ottoman Empire, often in conjunction with the local French consulates. In Palestine, three offices were opened: Jaffa (1852), Jerusalem (1890) and Haifa (1906). The stamps used were regular French ones, after 1885 stamps overprinted in Turkish currency, and from 1902 also French Levant stamps. Of the French postal arrangement, Porter describes it as “quick and safe, though frequently altered.” French mail-steamers, known as the Messagerie Imperiale (“Postal Line”), operated by the Compagnie des Services Maritimes des Messageries Nationales, departed every fortnight from the coast of Syria to Alexandria and Constantinople. From the ports at Alexandretta, Latikia, Tripoli, Beirut, and Yâfa, letters could be posted to Italy, France, England or America.

The only doubly taxed cover of the forerunner period seen so far is shown in Figure 3. This cover was mailed from New York in February, 1914. Upon arrival at the French P.O. in Jerusalem one 10 and one 20 centimes P.D. stamps were affixed on March 6. In an attempt to collect the 30 centimes, the payment was refused by the addressee, so the cover had to be returned to the sender. This we learn of two postal cachets –both unrecorded so far for Jerusalem – a rectangular “Refuse” on the back, and a double line “retour a l’envoyeur” on the front.

A second attempt to recover the charges was made in New York as evidenced by the duplex “Due 6 cents” of April 4, 1914 and the pre-cancelled pair of 3 cents American P.D. stamps affixed on the back on April 5. The manuscript notation on the front “refused New York” suggests that this second attempt to recover the charges had no greater success than the first one in Jerusalem.

Taxed Mail of the Ottoman Period Part 2, The Israel Philatelist, June 2012, p. 93.